This volume attempts to bring together a variety of essays on race in art history, essays that are sometimes contentious and at other times affirming and revelatory, but are always provocative. That some of the pieces may contradict each other or the views of their editor is, I believe, what makes the collection a useful tool for teaching or for serious contemplaton, hopefully both. Many of these essays present views of some of the most canonical artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Edouard Manet, and tackle social and political aspects of their work.

      Some essays discuss black, Asian, or Latino artists who have been largely ignored. I have attempted to present a mixture of essays by art historians, artists, anthropologists, literary historians, and philosophers that address the Western canon of art history. I have also brought together a variety of prose and rhetorical styles, which provide other pointsof comparison. Having pedagogical origins, this collection is ''user friendly"; one does not have to be an art historian, just a critical thinker, to learn from these essays. Advanced high school students, undergraduates, and graduate students can all benefit from this collection.                  Because all of the authors view a work of art as a window into the historical and cultural context in which it is created, these essays serve as a springboard for discussions and lesson plans in a variety of classrooms such as those in history, social science, cultural studies, visual studies, media studies, ethnic studyes, gender studies, and of course, studion art. Some of these essays address issues of reception and therefore, provide an excellent survey of the scholarship to date of a given artists's work. Teachers should consider the footnotes in each essay to be a bibliography for further reading.

Part 1 Black Athenas, Semitic Devils, and Black Magi Reaing Race from Antiquity to the Middle Ages
Part 2 Imag(in)ing Race in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
Part 3 Modernism and Its "Primitive" Legacy
Part 4 Race-ing Us White, Beige, Brown, and Black in the Twentieth Century